It is known to construct vehicles such as automotive vehicles with thin walled structural members such as longitudinal rails. Longitudinal rails are typically closed sections. For automotive structures, front longitudinal rails are the primary energy absorbing members during a frontal impact. However, rail length is restricted by styling and leads to limited energy absorbing capacity. Furthermore, rail size is restricted by engine compartment packaging and also limits energy absorbing capacity.
Front longitudinal rails that carry the load and absorb energy during a crash are traditionally designed with crush initiators to ensure a proper folding mechanism. However, crush initiators significantly reduce load carrying capacity of the longitudinal rails. Then, to increase the load capacity of these rails, internal reinforcements and/or honeycomb type material is used. The design of internal reinforcements can be difficult and often compromise the principal folding mechanism of the parent structure. Further, the traditional design of internal reinforcements does not have a proper design process, making it time consuming, costly, and prone to errors.
As a result, it is desirable to provide a new reinforcement for a structural member of a vehicle. It is also desirable to provide an internal reinforcement for a structural member of a vehicle. It is further desirable to provide an internal reinforcement for a structural member of a vehicle that is less time consuming and costly. Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide a new reinforcement for a structural member of a vehicle that meets these desires.